Chakwera snubs Apostle Mbewe on case withdraw plea

Malawi Congress party (MCP) presidential candidate Lazarus Chakwera has turned down the persuasion by Calvary Family Church (CFC) leader Apostle Madalitso Mbewe to withdraw a court case where his party is demanding recount of ballots in the controversial presidential polls.

Chakwera, whose party claims to have been robbed of votes, is said to be been persuaded by Mbewe to withdraw the case and allow Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) announce the results.

But Chakwera turned that the “inducement” and the matter also hit on Twitter with a tweet from Malawi Elections2014: http://t.co/dJQOgyqkVU.

Chakwera: Fighting in court

MCP is demanding recount of the votes following alleged irregularities and fraud during voting but Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and its presidential candidate Peter Mutharika, who was leading according to unofficial results, is rejecting the recount and are demanding that an announcement of the winner be made first.

Spokeswoman for MCP Dr Jessie Kabwila has strongly said the party will challenge the release of results from bogus and fraudulent polls.

Kabwila wondered why it is only DPP barring MEC from having a recount when United Democratic Front (UDF), People’s Party (PP) and other players are supporting the move.
She further blamed Malawi Electoral Support Network (MESN) for having a parallel tally centre which only sampled 800 centres and determining winner of the elections when there were over 7 million voters.

“MESN should be embarrassed now with their fake findings, as DPP never won the elections but the rigged,” said Kabwila.

MEC chairperson Maxon Mbendera announced yesterday that the commission will announce the results Friday May 30 subject to the outcome of the court case.

By law, the commission is obliged to release the results within eight days of the vote.

Modecai Msiska, a lawyer for the electoral commission, told AFP that despite the failure of the case to begin with, “as we stand now, the commission is within the statutory calendar to release the results by Friday”.

Meanwhile, it would wait to see whether the court could grant an extension for a recount, he said.